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French battery maker Saft launched its new energy storage facility for renewables in Zhuhai, China. Photo: SCMP Handout
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French battery maker Saft opens energy storage plant in Zhuhai, betting on city’s future role in bay area

  • The battery arm of the French oil giant Total said the new 6,600 square-metre facility is part of its efforts to tap the growing global energy storage market
  • Zhuhai is earmarked in the bay area blueprint for a role of developing the renewable energy storage market
Greater Bay Area
Pearl Liu
Pearl Liu
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French battery maker Saft has opened a manufacturing facility for energy storage systems in Zhuhai in southern China, its second plant in the Greater Bay Area city, as it bets on the city’s role in the future economic hub.

The battery arm of the French oil giant Total said on Wednesday that the launch of the new 6,600 square-metre facility in Sanzao Science & Technology Industrial Park, near the airport, is part of efforts to grab a share of the growing energy storage market as global demand for renewable energy expands.

The new plant in Zhuhai, with an annual capacity of 480 megawatt hours (MWh) of battery storage packed into 200 containers, is designed to serve Saft’s consumers worldwide.

“Investment in our Zhuhai production line shows how we have grown from being a supplier of batteries to providing complete energy solutions. Customers are turning to us for fully-integrated energy storage and microgrid technology solutions,” said Hervé Amossé, executive vice-president of Saft’s energy storage solutions and mobility division.

President Xi Jinping announced new goals in September at the United Nations General Assembly, saying China would reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral 30 years later.

The Greater Bay Area, a national scheme to integrate nine mainland Chinese cities with Hong Kong and Macau to creater an economic powerhouse to rival Silicon Valley, is set to play a big role in achieving this.

It aims to become a clean energy and low-carbon region, with goals of progressively developing renewable energy sources, according to the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, seen as the blueprint for the ambitious project, released by the Central government in February last year.

Zhuhai is one of the nine Guangdong province cities in the bay area plan and has a role of “strengthening the energy storage and transport system”, mentioned in the outline.

Albeit the smallest of the cities, its location at the southeastern tip of Guangdong province, gives it a huge advantage as it easily connects both Hong Kong and Macau.

It is about 40 minutes from Hong Kong via the world’s longest bridge – the 55 kilometre Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge – or 70 minutes by ferry.

It borders Macau by land and Guangzhou, the provincial capital, can be reached in 50 minutes via the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Railway.

The century-old Saft, which supplies batteries for the West Island line of the Hong Kong MTR system and some major railways in China, first came to Zhuhai in 2006, producing lithium batteries in different sizes.

The global energy storage market will reach an installed base of 34 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2025, according to Saft.

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